New ‘Dragonball Evolution’ Trailer Worse Than The Last One

Back in October, I wrote a little piece on the leaked trailer for Dragonball (now re-named Dragonball Evolution) and in it I basically talked about how terrible the teaser looked. I was clearly not the only one who thought this and after 91 comments and some feuding, Screen Rant Master Vic had to shut down the thread to simmer things down.

In defense of the movie (at that time), that trailer was very early and not complete in terms of post-production. Today however, we have the first official trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of the hit Manga series and it still sucks… maybe even more than the first teaser.

From this trailer, the characters and costumes look ridiculous (especially the secondary characters), the fight choreography looks awful and the dialogue and cinematography has B-movie or worse written all over it. Not to mention the terrible use of slow motion in some of the action sequences.

Don’t believe me? Watch and see:

Now, re-watch it while trying to put aside the special effects (which are 95% of it) and focus on what’s actually happening, especially the dialogue and acting. They are burying this in heavy visual and sound effects.

It looks like they’re trying so hard to take and use cool styles from other films but this movie doesn’t have that kind of ‘cool’ and using those techniques in the wrong places with poor execution really makes this feel over-the-top but in a bad way.

What I’m seeing from the trailer and images of this film give me the exact same feeling as Catwoman and Elektra did – both of which are both on my list of worst movies ever.

Some stories simply cannot be translated to the big screen. Have you seen the characters from Dragonball Z or its action sequences? It’s not even remotely human. The show was super popular and many people I know really dug it but I don’t think it makes for a live-action version, especially if it’s supposed to be faithful to the cartoon. Even if it’s not, the extreme nature, extreme style and crazyness that was Dragonball Z (for example) can’t be done in reality because it’s so far from reality that it looks stupid when they try to imitate with real people. The styles are simply too different.

Even the characters saying the word “dragonball” while holding a literal glowing ball sounds and looks like cheese in live-action. And that scene with that vehicle transforming while Justin Chatwin (playing Goku) says “cool” is really awesome too… Not.

I can’t tell if this is made solely for the fans of old (not me) and the young audiences or if the fans of the series’ will hate this and Fox is actually targeting more of a mainstream audience.

I don’t know if the movie will actually be as bad as I think this trailer is because I know Dragonball isn’t my thing regardless – but I expect pretty weak box-office earnings and I know I will not see it at the theater. Like I said in my first article, it might be a fun rental. I would love to know what fans of the cartoons think of this. Do you think it can be done well in live-action? Does this meet your expectations? And for those who don’t know much about Dragonball or simply may not have fancied the cartoons, will you see this flick?

Dragonball Evolution stars Justin Chatwin, James Marsters and Chow Yun-Fat and comes out April 8, 2009.

The fact is that the early dragonball storyline has already been made into a japanese film available with subtitles… The main thing is who cares? I mean even on the official webpages Akira Toriyama states “As the original creator, I had a feeling of “Huh?” upon seeing the screenplay and the character designs, but the director, all the actors, the staff, and the rest are nothing but “ultra” high-caliber people. Maybe the right way for me and all the fans to appreciate it is as a New Dragonball of a different dimension. Perhaps, this might become a great masterpiece of power! Hey, I look forward to it!!”Even if you don’t wanna pay to go see it doesn’t mean u can’t enjoy it for entertainment value when it hits TV lol!

Okay
I am a fan. I am old, and have been a fan for a very long time. I watched Dragonball, Z, and even blah… GT on VHS in Japanese without subtitles commercials included for well over 10 years.
I am qualified to label this trailer and the people who are responsible for it, and the wannabe fans supporting, yes you kaypain, it below pig s***.
No shame at all.

I’ll go see it just to see how much they screwed it up. And I’m going on the faith that sometimes a trailer looks worse than the movie actually turns out. When it comes to what I think about a live-action translation. I think it’s totally feasible while being true to the core of the story line. They’re trying to do the original Dragonball storyline with Evil King Piccolo trying to take over the world. Bulma is the daughter of the main inventor of Capsule Corp. I could tell they tried establishing the basics of the universe. I’ve been following the internet rumors about the live-action film for the last eight years. I’ve heard a lot of things. The biggest news I heard was that during production, the creator of the whole Dragonball manga and tv series (Akira Toriyama) was creative consultant on the film, which could have made the film true to it’s core. But FOX Studios fired Toriyama from consulting duties, because they felt he wanted too much control over the project (well, duh. It was his creation and story in the first place). The way they could do this, would be to establish Goku the way he’s always been, naive about the world, kind hearted, gentle, vibrant, selfless, innocent about all things, excited with a playful smile about the next opponent while taking it seriously. Next, Master Roshi should be a old pervert with Martial Arts wisdom, who gives the Nimbus Cloud to Goku as a gift for his pure heartedness. Bulma looks okay in the trailer, but could stand to be a little more girlish and annoying. Next, Goku should have been a ten or twelve year old boy with a tail. The whole idea i have is about starting the storyline small. Take three movies each a minimum of two hours if not three to tell the Dragonball storyline, then take the next four movies to tell the Dragonball Z story each three hours long. By this long and extensive plan, we can introduce every character from Puar and Oolong to Tien and Chiatzu, to Emperor Pilaaf, to The Ginyu Force and Frieza, to the Androids and Cell, to Majiin Buu and the World Tournament. And to establish every character background. It could be taken as seriously as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter if they actually put their executive minds to it. Actually, I will write my own script based on this plan and save it as a reboot idea for when I get to Hollywood to direct and produce.

This trailer has basically summed the movie up for me. A complete waste of time shooting,acting, and money. Now this is just my opinion; all of this, and should not be taken to heart. But this movie will do horribly at the box-office, any true fan of DBZ will realize what junk they have strewn together in this ridiculous re-imagined anime parody. So to every dummy that helped create this movie, congratulations on ruining this great anime series.

I’m a big fan of the original DB series. I have to say that the thing that really bothers me about this film is the changes made to the characters. I couldn’t care less about the plot or the over the top-action or the cheesiness because I love all those things.

But, above all, DB was endearing because of it’s characters. Goku was supposed to be a sweet, pure-hearted dunce who thought marriage was a food. Bulma was supposed to be a technology genius whose sole motivation for finding the dragonballs was to wish for a boyfriend. And Roshi is a perverted old man. Yeah, the fighting was great, but without the comedy, its really not the same.

So no, I don’t think I’ll give this movie a chance. If the character’s names and the title were changed, I could think this is a good movie on the basic premise of entertainment. But with the DB insignia tacked on, I don’t think I could help myself from thinking, “that’s not how it is in the manga, dammit.”

It seems to have done well in the Asian market though so who knows how many people will pony up the ~$10 to watch it in the US.

So, the results are in. This movie is a huge flop. If the poor box office performance or the numerous 1/5 star ratings are any indication, this movie is going down in flames. I personally could not even stay awake while watching it, it was THAT BAD.

I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I AM A BIG Z FAN I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND HOW SOME ONE CAN WORK ON SUCH A MASTER PIECE LIKE THE DB SERISE AND SCREW UP YOUR LIFES WORK WITH A MOVIE LIKE THIS . I 100% FEEL THEY SHOULD OF STAYED WITH THE THE DBZ STORY AND STARTED WITH THE SAYIAN SAGA BECAUSE THIS BOY IS TO OLD TO START AT DB . BY THE WAY I THINK THERE SHOULD BE LIFE AFTER DBGT …

I just finished watching the movie and to tell you the truth, its crap. I have been watching Dragon Ball for 15 years. Thats the only movie I love. BIG BIG Fan. But this movie sucks. Goku is not american white boy. NO! Goku isnt skinny. No! Goku loves to fight and not whimp out! Goku takes every chance at fighting. This movie really blows. I want to shoot the director so bad. He takes a good cartoon and make it hell.

I saw the movie the other day. A complete and total abomination. WHo cares that it wasn’t like the series. The movie sucked period. Ben Ramesy shouldn’t have wrote this movie. I would have done a better job writing this. Hopefully there will be a remake that is 100 times better than this crap. And to think i’ve been looking forwad to it. The acting was horrible. The special effects however were good. and James Marsgters from what i’ve seen was true to his character. And the scariest thing was that there was not enough fighting. I knew it was going to be bad when i found out it was PG!! And its a shame that there was a good reel of actors too. Holy crap. I can’t believe i actually thought it would end up being good, like transformers. That movie had mad people suprised when they saw it. Then again spielburg was on it so of cousrse it was gonna be good.

Im actaully a fan of teh entire db and dbz series. And I have to say that the live action version sucked bad…Acting sucked, costumes sucked, fight scene’s sucked, story line was way off… ect. If it wasnt for the names of the characters, you wouldnt know what the hell this movie was suppose to be without those dead givaways. If you going to make a live action version, make sure it is alteast true to the DB storyline or dont do it at all. This film gets a rating of absolute 0 out of 10 in comparison.

I would have to say that I have been and still is a very big fan of dragonball, DBZ, DBGT, and all the dragonball movies, except this one, first off, it starts him out as a teenager (Ibet they don’t give him a tail) second the acting is cheesey, third, if your a true die hard dragonball fan, you know this movie is major crap, and instead of trying to appeal to the younger generation,they should of made it more adultish like how it’s suppose to be, I bet this movie would haved looked way way better if Akira Toriyama had a big hand in this, but unfourently, we got a bunch of money hungry pricks taking a very good show and watering it down for the younger people,because they know that the kids are gonna ask there parents, and the parents are gonna go with the kids and they are going to spend more money seeing a very good show being slaughtered
by a white kid (No offense to anyone) who can make his hair spike up at any given time, SERIOUSLY! I bet this is gonna turn out to be just like the live action street fighter movie and Sh*t on a good franchise. Why is Goku white!!????

I feel your pain. But again even a non fan who isn’t brain washed by the everything with CGI is good bug will admit this movie crap from conception to the final editing process. The reason(I feel) Goku is white is becuz they “Americanized” it. There was a debate about this months ago. On one hand a good actor is a good actor regardless of ethnic or racial background, but they failed on the selection for Goku as they did with the rest of the movie. Even Chow Yun Fat couldn’t add any redemption to this film. And before people who purposely misread and try to attack, I don’t have a problem with Goku being white, just have a problem with him being a Fail choice as is this movie is a Fail choice for viewing.

@Oscar and the other fanboys,
Grow up. Seriously. Only fanboys and children take criticism toward something they like as a personal insult. People hate on things I love all the time, different strokes for different folks. They aren’t insulting me. How arrogant do you need to be to assume a critic cares that much about you to insult you by proxy?

As for this film? It’s NOT made by Akira Toriyama. He was cut out of the creative process back when the atrocity known as Dragonball GT-
*which flopped miserably in Japan btw, so I fail to see why this film would do better.
-was created.

As for fans being the only people who deserve to write without people like you showing up to sling fanboy tears around like a whiny short order cook, what a load. Unbiased reviews are the purest kind. Basing a film on it’s merits, AS A FILM.

The movie is garbage. A cheap, cash-in film, relating to the source material in name only. The script is embarrassingly bad. The special effects are sub-par. The characters are poor reflections, at best.

If you were any real fan of the original work, you’d realize that this film has none of the heart of the series. It’s just Hollywood cashing in your blind fanboyism. You also seem typical of DBZ fanboys and know next to nothing about the history of your beloved show.

I personally think that it can be done well, but only if you get the right director. The director of this, if my sources are correct, is the same person that made the live action “Speed Racer” a piece of crap. I would have to guess they are spinning this toward kids ages of 9-12 like they did with “Speed Racer” (regardless of whether or not I;m right about the director. Most of the fans of the original Speed Racer hated the live action but their children adored it, so I suppose the director of this film is shooting for the kids.